30 
and the presence of Ifme in it has no had eifects on them. Better than 
most shrubs they can support shade and their ability to grov/ and 
flower under trees make them valuable as undergrowth in border plan- 
tations. 
The Mock Orange of all old gardens is Syringa coronarius, the 
eastern European s{>ecies. This plant was first cultivated in Eng- 
land before the end of the sixteenth century and was probably one of 
the first garden shrubs brought to America by the English settlers. 
It is a medium-sized shrub often as broad as high. The flowers, too,, 
are of medium size and faintly tinged with yellow. This shrub 
has been somewhat neglected since so many species and hybrids 
with larger and showier flowers have found their way into gardens. 
This is unfortunate, for no other Syringa equals the old-fashioned 
Mock Orange in the delicate perfume of its flowers. Varieties of this 
plant with yellow leaves, with double flowers, and with narrow willow- 
like leaves can be seen in the Arboretum collection, but none of them 
have any particular decorative value. Among the American species 
which should find a place in all gardens are P. inodorus, P. pubescens^ 
and P. micro phyllus. The first is a native of the Appalachian Moun- 
tain region and grows to the height of six feet; it has arching branches 
and large, solitary, pure white, cup-shaped, scentless flowers. By some 
persons it is considered the most beautiful of all Syringas. P. pubes- 
cens, often called P. grandifiorus or P. latifolia is also a plant of the 
southern Appalachian region. It often grows to the height of twenty 
feet; the branches are stout and erect; the leaves are broad, and the 
slightly fragrant flowers are arranged in erect, from five- to ten-flow- 
ered racemes. This plant is more common in gardens than the last 
and when it is in bloom it makes a great show. P. microphyllus, 
which rarely grows more than three feet tall, has slender stems, and 
leaves and flowers smaller than those of any Philadelphus in cultivation. 
What the flowers lack in size, however, is made up in fragrance which 
is stronger than that of any other Syringa and perfumes the air for 
a long distance. 
The most distinct and the handsomest of the Asiatic species in the 
Arboretum is Philadelphus purpurascens, discovered by Wilson in 
western China. It is a large shrub with long arching stems from which 
rise numerous branchlets from four to six inches long and spreading at 
right angles; on these branchlets the flowers are borne on drooping 
stalks; they are an inch and a half long, with a bright purple calyx and 
pure white petals which do not spread as they do on most of the species 
but form a bell-shaped corolla and are exceedingly fragrant. This is 
one of the handsomest of the shrubs brought from western China to 
the Arboretum. Philadelphus Magdalenae is another Chinese species 
well worth cultivation. It is a tall broad shrub with arching stems, 
small dark green leaves and pure white fragrant flowers an inch and 
a quarter in diameter and arranged in drooping, leafy, many-flowered 
clusters from six to ten inches in length. Philadelphus pekinensis 
from northern China and Mongolia is a stout bush rather broader than 
high which every year produces great quantities of small flowers tinged 
